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Liberty and Power

  • Jul 23, 2006

    Libertarianism and the Iraq War at the VC

    by Liberty and Power

    Very interesting post by Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy about the intra-libertarian division over the war in Iraq. L&P gets a mention as a leading voice on the anti-war side. Worth a read, and worth a comment if you are so inclined.
  • Jul 22, 2006

    The Biggest Wave of Migration into Britain for Three Centuries

    by Liberty and Power

    That's Poles coming to live and work in Britain."Official statistics suggest that 228,000 Poles have registered to live and work in Britain since Poland joined the EU in May 2004. Other estimates suggest the real figure is between 350,000 and 500,000, while last week the respected Polish news magazine Polityka estimated that one million Poles have moved to the UK. Some 83% of them are under 34. This benign invasion of eager and biddable young Poles has, it is generally agreed, been marvellous fo
  • Jul 22, 2006

    The Brutal Legacy of the British Empire

    by Liberty and Power

    Richard Gott argues that all around the world, from Sierra Leone to Sri Lanka, the violent legacy of colonialism can still be witnessed. Read the full story here.
  • Jul 21, 2006

    Victory Through Victim-Swapping

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    By most reports, Israeli bombings of Lebanon are strengthening Hezbollah’s support among Lebanese civilians, while Hezbollah bombings of Israel are strengthening the Israeli government’s support among Israeli civilians.

    So here we have (what are by libertarian standards) two criminal gangs, both blasting away at innocent civilians, and the result is to incre
  • Jul 21, 2006

    A Failure to Communicate: The Case of the Minimum Wage

    by Liberty and Power

    Many of us have been trying to teach the public that the laws of economics operate no matter what anyone thinks of them. They grow out of the nature of human action. But the message hasn’t gotten through. Around the country people are enthusiastically voting in referendums to raise their state's minimum wage above the federal $5.15 level. Petition campaigns to put the question on state ballots never fail, says the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. As NPR's Mara Liasson reported on"M
  • Jul 20, 2006

    Quote of the Day

    by Liberty and Power

    "When a 'society' will sell an infant out of its mother's arms it has gone about as far as it can go (short perhaps of downright cannibalism) in the perversion of 'commercial transactions.'"

    Isabel Paterson, New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review 7, October 5, 1947, 18.

  • Jul 19, 2006

    Ministates An American Problem

    by Liberty and Power

    Michelle Boorstein's article in the Washington Post, "Homeowners Groups Fight to Stay Afloat," brings up an ongoing problem with the federally-encouraged quasi-municipalities commonly known as homeowner associations: liability
    Hidden Lake's problems mirror those cropping up at first-generation, association-run communities across the country as they deal wit
  • Jul 18, 2006

    George II and Condoleezza's Moral Depravity

    by Liberty and Power

    Surely this is a new low for the Bush adminstration. Any decent person would demand an immediate end to the murder and mayhem now taking place in the Lebanon and Israel. But George II and his foreign minister, Condoleezza Rice, insist that the time is not right for a ceasefire. When will the time be right? Here's what Rice told a press briefing today:
    We all want a cessation of violence. We all want the protection of civilians. We have to make certain that anything that we do is
  • Jul 18, 2006

    Olmert the Barbarian

    by Liberty and Power

    If you make an effort to read beyond the mainstream media, in which category I include the BBC, you will find analysis that provides a welcome rejoinder to the knee-jerk defense of Israel which passes for informed comment among most Americans.

    Here are three different articles that I commend for your consideration.

    M. Shahid Alam writes about Israel, the US and the New Orientalism. Don't miss the quotations from
  • Jul 18, 2006

    Shameless self-promotion

    by Liberty and Power

    FYI, I'll be interviewed tomorrow on Wisconsin Public Radio's"Here on Earth" show, from 3:00-3:30 Wisconsin time, which is 4:00-4:30 eastern. For those of you who don't live in Wisconsin, webcast instructions are beneath the fold. Topic will be The Simpsons.

    To listen live on the internet, go to www.hereonearth.org then click on the link called "Live Webcasting

  • Jul 17, 2006

    Overkill

    by Liberty and Power

    balko_whitepaper_300x394.jpgToday, my paper on SWAT teams and paramilitary tactics is finally released. You can read it here. It's been the thrust of my research for nearly a year, now. It offers a history
  • Jul 17, 2006

    Meet the Vicar of Baghdad

    by Liberty and Power

    Stephen Moss interviews Andrew White, vicar of St. George's, Baghdad.

    "White is now more diplomat than churchman - the foundation, though it has a Christian ethos, is independent of the Anglican church - but he may be the least diplomatic diplomat in the world. I ask him about one recent remark – 'I’ve got no time for trendy leftie peaceniks.' He is more than happy to amplify: 'I can pretend to like them, but I fi
  • Jul 16, 2006

    Forgotten Blues

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    The Alabama Philosophical Society (for which I’m the webmaster, archivist, and secretary-treasurer) will be holding its Annual Meeting on October 20-21, 2006, at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Derk Pereboom will be our Keynote Speaker.

    Check out the
  • Jul 16, 2006

    Jingoism VS. Empire

    by Liberty and Power

    My fellow-blogger, David Beito, quotes [below, 11th August] from Max Boot’s latest gory atavism. American forces, it seems, didn’t kill enough Ba’athists. On the other hand, the American army slaughtered a sufficient number of Filipinos (200,000 or so) to keep those natives quiet. On these grounds, Boot believes the Americans should proudly proclaim themselves imperialists.

    Now, in the latter part of the 19th century, a cheap, shallow, mindless militarism appeared amongst a cert
  • Jul 15, 2006

    Invisible Line

    by Liberty and Power

    It's comforting to hear George II urge the Israeli government to"limit" civilian casualties and damage to Lebanon's infrastucture. That rule has worked so well for us in Iraq. I wonder what the official upward limit on collateral damage is, beyond which Israel goes from self-defender to aggressor. Evidently a blockade is not over the line; nor is the bombing of civilian areas resulting in the deaths of innocents, including children. Not to worry: Bush and Rice know where the line is.

  • Jul 15, 2006

    Government the Exploiter, Not Protector

    by Liberty and Power

    If you begin with an incorrect premise, you are bound to arrive at bad conclusions. Nowhere is this more true than in matters of government. The debates over the “war on terror,” the Iraqi occupation, and the Bush administration’s casual approach to civil liberties are premised on the idea that the primary mission of the government in Washington is to protect the American people from harm.

    Wrong.

    None of the governments we are familiar with was established p